Applying for employment relations education course approval

How to apply to have a course approved for employment relations education (ERE) leave, and reporting requirements.

Only approved courses can be used for ERE purposes. Applications for course approval can be made by any individual, group or organisation that wishes to provide employment relations education, and courses submitted for approval may be accepted throughout the year. There is no limit on the number of proposals that an applicant may submit.

A course is only approved if it meets certain criteria. Approval lasts for three years, after which the provider needs to apply for reapproval.

Once a course is approved, providers are required to report certain information to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

A number of ERE courses have been developed. To avoid course duplication, check the list of ERE-approved courses to see whether a similar course already exists. See our guidelines on using pre-approved courses.

Applications

All applications must show that the course meets the relevant criteria. Use the checklist for ERE course approval [PDF 109KB] as a guide for course applications.

Your application should also include:

  • a contact person
  • organisation name
  • postal address
  • phone number
  • email address

Email applications for approval to the Executive Officer ERE or post to:

ERE Course Approvals
Market Services Group
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
PO Box 3705
Wellington

Approval

MBIE assesses submitted course applications, and recommends their approval (or otherwise) to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety. Courses are assessed and recommended for approval on a quarterly basis.

Reporting requirements

Providers must submit a report to MBIE for each course delivered that year. Reports must be submitted within two weeks after the end of that year.

Providers should use the ERE reporting form [DOC 351KB] to ensure consistency of information collected for MBIE’s database. This is used to monitor the ERE programme and report to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety.

For each course that is delivered the reports must include the following information:

  • the geographic location of each course delivery
  • how many participants attended each course delivery, broken down by gender and ethnicity and including the number of participants who chose not to provide this information.

Note that while we require course providers to ask participants for this information, under the Privacy Act 1993 providers must tell participants the purpose for which the information is being collected (to obtain statistical information about the ERE programme), and that participants may choose not to provide it.

  • the duration of each course delivery, and
  • a summary of course evaluation including a random sample of participant responses.

The information provided will only be used for monitoring and statistical purposes.

The following information is held by MBIE for monitoring purposes:

  • identity of those who proposed the course initially
  • target group
  • a copy of the mechanism to be used to assess the participants' understanding of the course material
  • a copy of the evaluation processes to be undertaken after the programme to decide whether the course has achieved its stated objectives, and
  • copies of the quarterly reports on course delivery (or quarterly reports from 1 July 2003).

To encourage the development of best practice examples and the sharing of information about approved courses to reduce duplication, information on approved courses is held by MBIE and made available to interested parties. This information includes:

  • name of course
  • course category as defined by criteria, eg good faith, health and safety, etc.
  • type of course: course for union delegates/employers or members/management
  • course objective or outline
  • length of course eg half day, three days, five days
  • proposed geographic location of course delivery
  • provider/deliverer of course, and
  • date course approved.

This applies to ERE course approval applications only. There are set eligibility criteria for ERE Contestable Fund applications.

Criteria used to assess employment relations education course approval

Guidance on critical success factors and the criteria used to assess whether an ERE course will be approved.

Critical success factors for employment relations education initiatives

Information and guidance for providers on critical success factors for ERE initiatives.

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